Edgar of all trades

I’ve said it before but I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason. They just do. I had the opportunity to watch a real show, albeit internet-based, filmed last weekend [The Guild]. At the same time, my wonderful cousin gave birth. Both events were in the same vicinity. I quickly bought my round trip ticket, informed my family that I would be visiting, and prepared for my trip. Three days I had.

I will talk about my experience in California at a later time. Right now I just wanted to talk about my experience on the plane to California. I had a window seat and was one of the first people to get to enter the plane.

My neighbor, in the middle seat, was already there. I will attempt to describe this individual. He was a black man. He looked distinguished and I right away though he must be a musician and/or someone of importance of some sort. He wore this gray wool cap. A wool cap like so:

Brown stressed leather jacket. Yes, I want one now. He wore a white turtle neck sweater and some kick ass jeans. This guy was swanky. I sat down and tried to position myself. I am a big guy and flights suck because of the size of those seats. I had the extra legroom, which I paid extra for. For some reason I kept peeking over to this man thinking “There’s something about him.” and I could not figure it out.

This is about the time that our final neighbor showed up. Aisle guy. This guy slammed his laptop case on the chair hard. I was shook a bit. The guy took some a magazine out and some other thing then sat down in the chair as hard as he could. It was surreal. While this was happening, I would catch the leather jacket guy tug at his cap. Total celebrity move if I ever saw one.

Here it gets interesting. I had gone to the T-Mobile store, its my carrier, earlier that day because my phone was behaving badly. I asked about the new G1 with the Android software. This guy on the plane had it and I took advantage and asked him about it. Pros and cons since I was interested in exchanging my Wing. That was it. That was all we talked about.

That is, until we were close to landing. Something compelled me to ask him what he did, after some random comment was exchanged regarding the flight. “I’m a musician.” he answered to my glee. I was right!

“What do you do, man?” he retorted. I explained that I work as a programmer for Northwestern University’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. His eyes lighted up. “I work on an application that helps the different facilities that research cancer bill for their services. I do my part in helping fight cancer.”

He then shared a very personal thing. First, he mentioned that he plays for the Rolling Stones. Darryl Jones, bass player for about 15 years now. Whoah! Right? His mother passed away recently. Very personal. He mentioned that she spent her final days in Prentice, Northwestern’s new Women’s Hospital.

He told me about her. Typical strong-willed and minded mother. Hated hospitals and did everything wholistic. Darryl mentioned that the people at Prentice took very good care of her. I brought up a little story about my Godfather. He passed away years ago when I was very young. In his sleep. That same night, I had a dream where I stood in complete darkness. A very dark room. In the distance, I heard his voice. It sounded a little worried. He was talking to me. Giving me instructions. In Spanish. Most of all, he told me to take care of my Godmother. Watch over my three Godsisters. Even gave me an example, should I ever see money on the ground, to pick it up and give it to them. Help them out. That was the crux of my dream. Before I knew he had passed away. That same night.

I forgot about my dream when I awoke. It came back to me when I did exactly as suggested. I found some coins on the street and I picked them up and gave them to my Godmother. We happened to be together at the time. This was at the wake days later. The dream came back to me. I told Darryl this because it was a way for me to know that there is definitely an afterlife and as an assurance, his mother was in the same place. “Right on.” he said.

We began having a wonderful talk about local Chicago music. The scene. Southside still has several great locations for jazz and similar music. Surreal for sure. I highly recommend you speak to a musical legend about music in person because that is amazing.

He asked me what I was doing in California. I mentioned my cousin and Felicia Day. I asked if he’d seen House this season. Mentioned Felicia’s different works and explained that I found her working on an independent internet show and I volunteered my web tech skills to help her. I said that I have a great job that pays me and so I use my free time helping anyone that asks for my help.

This, again, tugged at him. Turns out his mother would help people in her own way. Out of the kindness of her heart. This came out after her passing and neither he nor his sibling(s) knew of this. “I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason.” I told Darryl. It was not pure chance that we sat next to each other. “Right on.”

Darryl told me another thing that happened that showed that his mother was still influencing their lives, but I will keep this story to myself. If you ask me, I will tell you privately, but I have to keep some of my experience for myself and out of respect.

Finally, Darryl mentioned that he might need some assistance with his website and asked for my business card. I gave one to him. It was a very positive experience and I am glad I was able to share this experience with others.

Something to tell the grandkids some day. I just hope I can be of help if needed. I love my life. I would love to subscribe to his blog, lets hope he starts blogging again, visit his website and comment on his blog. Tell him I sent you. Check out Darryl in action!

6 Responses

I’m sure words don’t actually capture all the feelings you had with this experience, but you definitely described it really well. It’s an awesome story and clearly one that will stay with you for a very long time. The world could use more good and helpful people like you.